Mormonism and polygamy

Polygamy (called plural marriage by Latter-day Saints in the 19th century or the Principle by modern fundamentalist practitioners of polygamy) was practiced by leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) for more than half of the 19th century, and practiced publicly from 1852 to 1890 by between 20 and 30 percent of Latter-day Saint families. Polygamy among Latter-day Saints has been controversial, both in Western society and within the LDS Church itself. Many U.S. politicians were strongly opposed to the practice; the Republican platform even referred to polygamy and slavery as "the twin relics of barbarism." a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, publicly announced and defended the practice at the request of then-church president Brigham Young.

Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, the LDS Church and the United States remained at odds over the issue. The church defended polygamy as a matter of religious freedom, while the federal government, in line with prevailing public opinion, sought to eradicate it. Polygamy likely played a role in the Utah War of 1857–1858, as Republican critics portrayed Democratic President James Buchanan as weak in opposing both polygamy and slavery. In 1862, the U.S. Congress passed the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act, prohibiting polygamous marriage in the territories. Despite the law, many Latter-day Saints continued to practice polygamy, believing it was protected by the First Amendment. However, in 1879, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Morrill Act's constitutionality in Reynolds v. United States, asserting that while laws could not interfere with religious belief, they could regulate religious practices. officially banning the formation of new polygamous unions within the LDS Church. Although this manifesto did not dissolve existing polygamous marriages, relations with the United States markedly improved after 1890, such that Utah was admitted as a U.S. state in 1896. After the manifesto, some church members continued to enter into polygamous marriages, but these eventually stopped in 1904 when church president Joseph F. Smith disavowed polygamy before Congress and issued a "Second Manifesto", calling for all new polygamous marriages in the church to cease, and established excommunication as the consequence for those who disobeyed. Existing polygamous LDS couples continued to live together into the 1950s. The LDS Church repudiates polygamist groups and excommunicates their members if discovered. On its website, the church states that "the standard doctrine of the church is monogamy" and that polygamy was a temporary exception to the rule. Adherents of various churches and groups from the larger Latter Day Saint movement continue to practice polygamy.

Although the main branch of Mormonism, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, prohibits any form of bigamy or legal marriage to more than one spouse, it still practices the sealing of multiple women to a single husband in its temple ceremonies. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints also teaches and maintains that both polygamy and polyandry exist in the afterlife, and that a woman can be sealed to more than one husband and that a man can be sealed to multiple women.

Origin

Historian Richard van Wagoner reports that Smith developed an interest in polygamy after studying parts of the Old Testament in which prophets had more than one wife. In the 1830s or early 1840s, Latter Day Saint movement founder Joseph Smith secretly initiated a practice of religious polygamy among select members of the Church of Christ he founded. In Nauvoo, Illinois, Smith introduced ecclesiastical leaders to the practice of polygamy, and he married several plural wives. The church publicly denounced polygamy, and only some membership knew about the teachings and practiced polygamy. According to some historians and then-contemporary accounts, by this time, polygamy was openly taught and practiced. Smith had sexual relations with some of his wives; others, he had no sexual relations with.